Here is the problem, because of the lack of screws supplied with the H60 I was a limited in how I could attach it to the HAF XM case I have. Ideally I wanted it attached to the top of the case but the standard screws I had were just not long enough. I thought of putting the fan on the top but then the four pin connector to the motherboard got in the way.

I was a bit cheesed off and not really happy with the way that I had to put the cooler into the case and it kept on bugging me. I was looking through the bags of various screws I have and I had a weird thought. It looked like the brass motherboard spacers had the right kind of thread. So I unmounted the H60 and tried them out. Lo and behold they fit! Unfortunately the brass spacers went through the cutouts for the screw holes at the top of the case. The cure for this was two washers to each brass spacer, one between the spacer and the top of the case and another one on top of the case to prevent the screw from going through.

So a big one finger salute (or if you prefer, a digital representation of binary four) to Corsair, I got it where I wanted it in spite of them.

Would it kill them to add a few more screws just to make mounting the radiator a bit more flexible?

I would get on to Cooler Master for making a case with mounts that aren't immediately suitable for use with common integrated water-coolers, if that is indeed the case. I didn't have any trouble installing an H60 in my Define R3 on the rear 120mm mount, but I understand that not all cases are made with the same component selection in mind.

Airmantharp wrote:I would get on to Cooler Master for making a case with mounts that aren't immediately suitable for use with common integrated water-coolers, if that is indeed the case. I didn't have any trouble installing an H60 in my Define R3 on the rear 120mm mount, but I understand that not all cases are made with the same component selection in mind.

I specifically wanted to mount the cooler to the top of the case. The new tubes on the H60 (2013 version) are thicker than the ones that were on the H60 previously and because it is mounted to an AMD processor (AMD A8-5600K) I only have two ways of mounting the pump unit onto the CPU from the outset (as opposed to four ways for an Intel processor).

The CoolerMaster case is eminently suitable for mounting a watercooler such as the H60, it is Corsair that is too cheap to add some screws (eight would take care of any problems - four somewhat longer but otherwise standard threaded chassis screws and four extra fan mounting screws in case one wishes to mount the cooler in a push/pull configuration).

And before someone chimes in and says, "Well you could go to the hardware store and get some". The answer to that would be, no. I live in the UK and the only screws they have in the hardware store here in the UK (I went to Drews) were metric ones and Maplins - which is normally good for computer odds and sods - only had the ones that were too short. Of of course I could as the person at Maplins suggested spend the US equivalent of $15 for an assortment of screws where "a few of them are bound to fit".

And don't try to tell me that I am the only one who has issues with this.

However the post was about how I got around the problem, so my original post was a glass half full whereas your reply was a glass half empty.

So I'll add this, which I skipped the first time: It sounds like you're trying to mount the H60 with the radiator to the case panel and then the fan to the radiator, so that the fan blows through the radiator and out of the case. This is logical, but it is not how Corsair recommends the H60 be mounted. The manual shows that the fan should instead (if this is not what you're doing) be sandwiched between the radiator and the case, set as an intake, so that it is always pulling cold air in and pushing it through the radiator.

Again, not logical, and not even optimal, but it is what they recommend and it is what they ship mounting hardware for.

So I'll add this, which I skipped the first time: It sounds like you're trying to mount the H60 with the radiator to the case panel and then the fan to the radiator, so that the fan blows through the radiator and out of the case. This is logical, but it is not how Corsair recommends the H60 be mounted. The manual shows that the fan should instead (if this is not what you're doing) be sandwiched between the radiator and the case, set as an intake, so that it is always pulling cold air in and pushing it through the radiator.

Again, not logical, and not even optimal, but it is what they recommend and it is what they ship mounting hardware for.

I don't know which bright spark at Corsair came up with that idea. And this is not my first time at the Corsair watercooling rodeo, I have had a Corsair H80 in a push/pull configuration in my CoolerMaster HAF X exhausting air out of the case running 24/7 for 959 days 9 hours now and my CPU temps are still quite satisfactory thank you.

If I had installed it the way that Corsair recommends I would have had to remove it numerous times (I reckon at least ten times) to clean out the clogged veins resulting from sucking in the dust, pollen etc. from the ambient air. Guess how long it would take before the advantages of sucking in the cooler air from outside the chassis would be offset by the blowing out the warmer from inside the casing when the radiator is clogged with gunk with greatly reduced heat exchange from using the water cooler as a vacuum cleaner.

I have had two spine operations and I have spinal arthritis, so the ambient room temperature where I live and work does not have "cold air". I had originally thought of putting some mesh over the intake and operating the radiator with regard to the way that Corsair recommends but that would get clogged up even faster. I use my computer for work, not as a hobby or an objet d'art.

Why do you refer to yourself in the plural? Who do you speak for? I was after all replying directly to you.

JustAnEngineer wrote:I suppose that there's no hardware store anywhere near you? You're talking about fairly common machine screws. You can buy them in whatever length you like for pennies each.

In the United States, not however in the United Kingdom. The company Drews has a large ironmonger where I live and Maplins has a large electronics store here. The only chance I would have of getting screws of the type I need would perhaps be in a assortment offered by Maplins (Drews have no screws that will fit an Imprerial thread it is all metric) and the person there said "The screws will probably be in there" was an assortment costing around $15. Really? $15 for four screws?

This is apart from the rather large Tupperware box of screws I have left over from building computers over the years, which I also rummaged through.

If you had bothered to read my original post instead of trying to pile on you would have noticed that I described how I resolved the annoying issue.

I am pretty cheesed off at how cheap and miserly Corsair has been with regard to placing some extra screws (eight would do it) in the box. Their attitude seems to be, "Well if you cannot install the radiator the way we tell you to, then go and take a phuque to yourself".

JustAnEngineer wrote:I suppose that there's no hardware store anywhere near you? You're talking about fairly common machine screws. You can buy them in whatever length you like for pennies each.

In the United States, not however in the United Kingdom....

Wow, really? That's insane, I can think of a dozen hardware stores I could get machine screws / stove bolts to fit this...all within a 20 minute drive...U.S.A!! I do agree with your frustrations though, while the Corsair-recommended arrangement obviously offers the best performance, it definitely doesn't lend itself to easy fan cleaning. Furthermore, what does someone do if they want to add another fan for push-pull?

That's almost exactly what I felt. This is the first time that I have had to go out to attempt to get screws for a computer in well over two decades.

If I had an Intel instead of an AMD processor I could perhaps have made it work, but because I only have two mounting possibilities for the pump part of the cooler with the AMD (as opposed to four possibilities with an Intel) it really constrained me with regard to attaching the unit without putting undue flexing on the tubes connecting the pump to the radiator. It is impossible for instance to mount the fan on top of the radiator and have the mounting screws attach the unit that way.

And this is without even giving a damn about the aesthetics of the whole thing.

Zip ties are cheaper and more versatile than screws. The ultimate fallback computer assembly fastener. I assume that the Queen has not made zip ties as unavailable in the UK as machine thread screws are.

I'm trying to imagine how I would attach the radiator of the Corsair H60 Watercooler to the top of my chassis with zip ties. I suppose it would be possible but it would be a Godawful kluge.

I remember back in the day when I got four sticks of RAM and they were different heights. Two of them I could clip in but the other two were too low. So I cut up a matchstick and jammed the two low ones in against the ones that clipped in - it worked that way for years.

Nec_V20 wrote:I don't know which bright spark at Corsair came up with that idea. And this is not my first time at the Corsair watercooling rodeo, I have had a Corsair H80 in a push/pull configuration in my CoolerMaster HAF X exhausting air out of the case running 24/7 for 959 days 9 hours now and my CPU temps are still quite satisfactory thank you.

If I had installed it the way that Corsair recommends I would have had to remove it numerous times (I reckon at least ten times) to clean out the clogged veins resulting from sucking in the dust, pollen etc. from the ambient air. Guess how long it would take before the advantages of sucking in the cooler air from outside the chassis would be offset by the blowing out the warmer from inside the casing when the radiator is clogged with gunk with greatly reduced heat exchange from using the water cooler as a vacuum cleaner.

I have had two spine operations and I have spinal arthritis, so the ambient room temperature where I live and work does not have "cold air". I had originally thought of putting some mesh over the intake and operating the radiator with regard to the way that Corsair recommends but that would get clogged up even faster. I use my computer for work, not as a hobby or an objet d'art.

Why do you refer to yourself in the plural? Who do you speak for? I was after all replying directly to you.

I'm not trying to be rude; please don't take it that way. I've read your posts and feel that you have a lot of experience that can add to this forum, and that is one of the reasons I responded in this thread.

Now, the complaint you raise about dust: this is directly related to your selection of enclosure and accessories, and reflects on your build schema. If you do not imagine that you need filters on every possible intake, then you should be expecting dust, it's as simple as that. I don't recommend Cooler Master cases often for this reason, as the cheap ones seem to be unfiltered which raises the total component cost to add filters, and the expensive ones aren't as good as the alternatives, in most situations.

For my part, I got damn tired of dust. It makes working on a system that has been up and running regularly a pain, and it gradually reduces the performance of all parts while reducing the lifetime of most of them, especially the fans. I can't imaging having an unfiltered intake on a performance-oriented computer that needs a lot of airflow. Cleaning filters is just so much faster and easier.

_________WRT to my writing style: I prefer not to refer to myself if at all possible, and instead strive to write in a detached 'third person' perspective, because it isn't all about me; I tend to use my own experiences as examples only as a last resort when I'm really trying to prove a point, but it is much quicker to speak from experience when I've already gone down that road and hit all of the potholes and gotten stuck in all of the ruts .

Two quid and the wait for something which should be included from the outset. But if you want to use those for attaching the radiator to the top of the HAF XM chassis you have to make sure you order some washers as well.

So let's call it three squid, you are still have to wait for the best part of a week to get them. I explicitly made the point that they aren't expensive and it is cheap and petty of Corsair not to include an extra eight screws.

If I were interested in the cost I would not have spent $510 on a keyboard for instance.

I had originally attached it to the back of the case, taking out the 140 mm fan which I could not use elsewhere and it had slipped my mind during the course of installing the machine.

As I stated in my original post:

I was a bit cheesed off and not really happy with the way that I had to put the cooler into the case and it kept on bugging me. I was looking through the bags of various screws I have and I had a weird thought. It looked like the brass motherboard spacers had the right kind of thread.

Now this was after I had come back from the ironmongers and the electronics store without finding the proper screws and I was looking through my huge collection of screws to see if I had something which would work or that I had overlooked before.

Of course I could buy what I needed online and that would have been the next thing I would have - grudgingly - done if the motherboard brass spacers had not worked.

So your post was not a reply to my original post because I did not say or imply that it was impossible to get the type of screws I needed, just that I find it bloody minded of Corsair not to include such a low-cost item. To include the screws would cost them less than a penny.

You keep using 'ironmongers,' so as a culturally-inept yank (and southern at that) I had to look it up. Translation into 'Murican is 'hardware store' and 'ironmongery' is the 'hardware' they sell.

Also, do note that some of us like myself are actually from Texas, and we actually do have rodeos. I've become pretty active in photography lately, so I'll try to get pertinent shots, but as always, Google is your friend.

Now, the complaint you raise about dust: this is directly related to your selection of enclosure and accessories, and reflects on your build schema. If you do not imagine that you need filters on every possible intake, then you should be expecting dust, it's as simple as that. I don't recommend Cooler Master cases often for this reason, as the cheap ones seem to be unfiltered which raises the total component cost to add filters, and the expensive ones aren't as good as the alternatives, in most situations.

For my part, I got damn tired of dust. It makes working on a system that has been up and running regularly a pain, and it gradually reduces the performance of all parts while reducing the lifetime of most of them, especially the fans. I can't imaging having an unfiltered intake on a performance-oriented computer that needs a lot of airflow. Cleaning filters is just so much faster and easier....

I am a filter nut too. I make my own custom filters and put them on every intake. I leave the PSU, GPU, and CPU (radiator) as exhausts and I make everything else intake. This creates positive pressure and forces every bit of air in the case to pass through a filter before entering. As for the filters I use thin carbon filters. I prefer the material ripped from stove top vent hoods as opposed to room air filters, as these has less carbon dust in the weave. With decently high static pressure fans (cougar for silence, scythe gentle typhoon for power), I still move massive amount of air, quietly. When the filters look nasty every 6 months or so, I take a vacuum cleaner attachment and run it over the face of the filters and that removes 95+% of dust that has built up. I keep my case on the floor of my bedroom, and in all that dust, I can proudly say that I have never once cleaned the inside of the case in the 4 years since I built it and it is spotless.

rookiebeotch wrote: I keep my case on the floor of my bedroom, and in all that dust, I can proudly say that I have never once cleaned the inside of the case in the 4 years since I built it and it is spotless.

Yeap, me too. Ever since I got my Antec P183v2 a few years ago - I never had to clean the insides even though I never turn my PC off. Every couple of months I just open front door, vacuum the filters (without removing them), then close the front door and continue using it. No issues with dust or my cat's hairs

My subscription allows you people to exist on this site and makes me a better human being than you'll ever be

Nec_V20 wrote:I don't know which bright spark at Corsair came up with that idea ....

I'm not trying to be rude; please don't take it that way. I've read your posts and feel that you have a lot of experience that can add to this forum, and that is one of the reasons I responded in this thread.

Now, the complaint you raise about dust: this is directly related to your selection of enclosure and accessories, and reflects on your build schema. If you do not imagine that you need filters on every possible intake, then you should be expecting dust, it's as simple as that. I don't recommend Cooler Master cases often for this reason, as the cheap ones seem to be unfiltered which raises the total component cost to add filters, and the expensive ones aren't as good as the alternatives, in most situations.

For my part, I got damn tired of dust. It makes working on a system that has been up and running regularly a pain, and it gradually reduces the performance of all parts while reducing the lifetime of most of them, especially the fans. I can't imaging having an unfiltered intake on a performance-oriented computer that needs a lot of airflow. Cleaning filters is just so much faster and easier.

_________WRT to my writing style: I prefer not to refer to myself if at all possible, and instead strive to write in a detached 'third person' perspective, because it isn't all about me; I tend to use my own experiences as examples only as a last resort when I'm really trying to prove a point, but it is much quicker to speak from experience when I've already gone down that road and hit all of the potholes and gotten stuck in all of the ruts .

The lack of dust filters was the main thing that put me off CoolerMaster cases before the HAF X came along. What I like about them is the fact that a lot of air gets pumped in by the slower rotating 200 mm fans.

I need a case that I can put a lot of storage into and other similar case which I might take into consideration cost about twice as much as the HAF X. So for what I wanted at the time, and looking through all the alternatives which were available the HAF X suited my needs perfectly for a price I was willing to pay. This doesn't imply that there were no better alternatives, but I was not willing to pay the price that was asked for them.

To answer your question my case does have a dust filter on every intake. When I do add something into the box I give the inside a once over with the vacuum cleaner but I have to say that the filters do their job pretty well. I'm not anal about the system, it is a workhorse after all and not a dancing horse. With an i7-990x I don't think one can consider it to be a low end system. It amuses me when someone brings their system around for me to fix and it is all lit up like a Christmas Tree when I apply the power (outside and inside) and the insides are cheap rubbish (pimp my Yugo anyone?). Some of them look at my unassuming system and ask what's in it and I find it amusing to see their jaws drop when I tell them.

While not as impressive, that is one thing I like about my system in the R3. A hypothetical R5 with an Ivy firing on eight cores in it's heart at ~5.0GHz cooled by a 240mm IWC up top and some over-built array of GPUs feeding a 4k panel sounds about right to me, for some diminutive little box stuffed under a shelf somewhere. I'd even consider going mATX if I can be assured that networking and audio are sufficiently accounted for; I'd really like to try one of those nicer USB DAC/Amp things for gaming with some premium cans. WiFi can be mini-PCIe, so then it would be just down to the GPU coolers in the slots.

It isn't only Corsair that needs to add more hardware to their installation kits, all manufacturers do. Until we can get a common set of standards in the PC industry, for mounting CPU coolers among other things, its going to go on like this and each aftermarket manufacturer is going to have to come up with kits for AMD and Intel CPU's/Motherboards.

The Imperial versus Metric units of measure does not help. You had issues because you needed Imperial screws and I generally have the same issue only I can't find the right Metric bits of hardware here in the States. 95% of the world is using the Metric system now, its about time that the United States, Liberia, and Burma did the same. Tell you what, we will go metric if England and the rest of the few countries that drive on the left hand side of the road switch to the right side like every one else.

Khali wrote:It isn't only Corsair that needs to add more hardware to their installation kits, all manufacturers do. Until we can get a common set of standards in the PC industry, for mounting CPU coolers among other things, its going to go on like this and each aftermarket manufacturer is going to have to come up with kits for AMD and Intel CPU's/Motherboards.

The Imperial versus Metric units of measure does not help. You had issues because you needed Imperial screws and I generally have the same issue only I can't find the right Metric bits of hardware here in the States. 95% of the world is using the Metric system now, its about time that the United States, Liberia, and Burma did the same. Tell you what, we will go metric if England and the rest of the few countries that drive on the left hand side of the road switch to the right side like every one else.

We use the metric system all of the time in the US. We just throw a bunch of other random crap in there too. It keeps us on our toes!

Khali wrote:It isn't only Corsair that needs to add more hardware to their installation kits, all manufacturers do. Until we can get a common set of standards in the PC industry, for mounting CPU coolers among other things, its going to go on like this and each aftermarket manufacturer is going to have to come up with kits for AMD and Intel CPU's/Motherboards.

The Imperial versus Metric units of measure does not help. You had issues because you needed Imperial screws and I generally have the same issue only I can't find the right Metric bits of hardware here in the States. 95% of the world is using the Metric system now, its about time that the United States, Liberia, and Burma did the same. Tell you what, we will go metric if England and the rest of the few countries that drive on the left hand side of the road switch to the right side like every one else.

We use the metric system all of the time in the US. We just throw a bunch of other random crap in there too. It keeps us on our toes!

Airmantharp, Khali

I have to be fair here, there are two words to consider and they would be "legacy" and "compatibility". I probably still have screws from the first computer I ever built for myself from the early 1980's in my hoard in the Tupperware box and they will still fit my computer hardware today.

It is only gradually since then that the metric system has overtaken the imperial system in the world - and although the Sun now sets on the British Empire, God still does not trust Englishmen in the dark. Apart from Germans like myself, who in the 1980's had even heard of the DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung - German Institute for Standards) standard for instance?

Think of the UK; there people drive on the left hand side of the road. What if they decided to change that, how would they do it? Phase it in gradually? The chaos would be unimaginable. Or consider the amount of rockets that were lost to NASA because the German scientists used the comma to separate the decimal places and the Americans used the period.

As cheesed off as I am, I would be livid if the only place where I could get screws that threaded into my cooler would be from Corsair and they didn't offer the size I needed.

Considering the alternative I would say that any norm is better than no norm at all.

When I had mine, I actually mounted the fan outside the case (with a fan grill) and sandwiched the metal top of the case between the fan and radiator. Didn't look all that great, but there was alot more room to work with inside by getting the 120mm fan out of the case.

Usacomp2k3 wrote:When I had mine, I actually mounted the fan outside the case (with a fan grill) and sandwiched the metal top of the case between the fan and radiator. Didn't look all that great, but there was alot more room to work with inside by getting the 120mm fan out of the case.

I believe I considered doing that, but with my enclosure and the H60 at least, I had plenty of room inside. Now, if I were to put an H80i in, or get a second fan for the H60 (which I probably should), putting one of the fans on the outside does make sense.